Reliable communication over bandlimited and nonlinear channels usually requires equalization to simplify receiver processing. Equalizers that perform joint detection and decoding (JDD) achieve the highest information rates but are often too complex to implement. To address this challenge, model-based neural network (NN) equalizers that perform successive interference cancellation (SIC) are shown to approach JDD information rates for bandlimited channels with a memoryless nonlinearity and additive white Gaussian noise. The NNs are chosen to have a periodically time-varying and recurrent structure that imitates the forward-backward algorithm (FBA) in every SIC stage. Simulations for short-haul fiber-optic links with square-law detection show that NN-SIC nearly doubles current spectral efficiencies, and bipolar or complex-valued modulations achieve energy gains of up to 3 dB compared to state-of-the-art intensity modulation. Moreover, NN-SIC is considerably less complex than equalizers that perform JDD, mismatched FBA processing, and Gibbs sampling.

Neural networks (NNs) inspired by the forward-backward algorithm (FBA) are used as equalizers for bandlimited channels with a memoryless nonlinearity. The NN-equalizers are combined with successive interference cancellation (SIC) to approach the information rates of joint detection and decoding (JDD) with considerably less complexity than JDD and other existing equalizers. Simulations for short-haul optical fiber links with square-law detection illustrate the gains.

The maximum information rates for bandlimited channels with direct detection are achieved with joint detection and decoding (JDD), but JDD is often too complex to implement. Two receiver structures are studied to reduce complexity: separate detection and decoding (SDD) and successive interference cancellation (SIC). For bipolar modulation, frequency-domain raised-cosine pulse shaping, and fiber-optic channels with chromatic dispersion, SIC achieves rates close to those of JDD, thereby attaining significant energy gains over SDD and intensity modulation. Gibbs sampling further reduces the detector complexity and achieves rates close to those of the forward-backward algorithm at low to intermediate signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) but stalls at high SNR. Simulations with polar codes, higher-order modulation, and multi-level coding confirm the predicted gains.

The use of low resolution Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) can significantly reduce the power consumption for massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems. The existing literature on quantized massive MIMO systems deals with Cyclic Prefix (CP) transmission schemes in frequency- selective fading channels. In this paper, we propose a block processing Frequency Domain Equalization (FDE) technique in CP-free transmission schemes for massive MIMO systems having low resolution ADCs. The optimal block length for FDE is found by minimizing a computational complexity cost function and taking quantization distortion, channel impulse response and the number of transmit and receiver antennas into account. Through numerical simulation, it is shown that the optimal block length also guarantees good performance in terms of the Mean Square Error (MSE) and Bit Error-Rate (BER) criterion.